Europa Grain Free Small Breed: 52/48 Duck review

Half the range reads Good on our scoring, level with the typical adult dry food, while the chicken and the salmon and trout recipes clear the line into Excellent. What lifts them is straightforward. A large declared meat share, carbohydrate under the level usual for a dry food, and labels that show their working rather than rounding everything into one headline.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck 52% (Freshly Prepared Duck 26%, Dried Duck 24%, Duck Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (26%), Peas (8%), Potato, Omega 3 Supplement, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Orange (0.3%), Cranberry, Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

Declared meat runs from 50% in the lamb to 55% in the chicken. Each label then breaks that figure into its freshly prepared and dried shares, with stock counted on its own. That split matters. Water makes up much of freshly prepared meat, and a lot of it goes off in the oven, while the dried share is already near its final weight. Across the four, protein converts to between 28.3% and 31.5% of dry matter.

Sweet potato takes 22% to 26% depending on the flavour, with peas between 7% and 9% and potato behind them. Wheat, rice and maize are absent right across the range. Estimated carbohydrate lands between 39.2% and 43.4% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Linseed sits on all four lists as a plant source of omega 3, joined by an entry called simply omega 3 supplement. That entry names no source, and marine oils are the usual choice for one. So while no fish appears on the face of the lamb, duck and chicken lists, none of them can be called fish free with confidence.

Fibre comes from beet pulp. Both prebiotics are dosed in print, fructooligosaccharides at 96 mg/kg and mannanoligosaccharides at 24 mg/kg. They go to work on the gut's own bacteria, not on anything the dog digests directly. Printing the doses says the label expects to be read.

The last named item on each bag is that flavour's flourish. Mint on the lamb, orange and cranberry on the duck, asparagus on the salmon and a six herb blend on the chicken, all sitting at trace level. None of them shifts the nutrition, and these recipes do not need them to stand up. The meat and the sweet potato underneath are doing the real work.

Duck at 52%, with the most even split in the range at 26% freshly prepared duck against 24% dried duck, so more of the declared meat survives the oven here than elsewhere. Sweet potato sits at 26% and peas at 8%, and orange at 0.3% with cranberry rounds the label off.

Per kilo, the salmon and trout is £5.06, the chicken £5.50, the duck £7.00 and the lamb £13.33. All four come in a 6kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats around 223 to 229 grams a day of these recipes, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). On that basis the daily figure is £1.13 on the salmon and trout, £1.25 on the chicken, £1.57 on the duck and £3.05 on the lamb.